TOKYO Chacha the chimpanzee made his own great escape on Thursday, fleeing from a zoo in northern Japan and leading authorities on a dramatic chase. The male primate went missing from Yagiyama Zoological Park and was seen roaming in a neighborhood in Sendai. V... More »
WASHINGTON An Ohio man paralyzed in an accident while diving in waves can now pick up a bottle or play the video game Guitar Hero thanks to a small computer chip in his brain that lets his mind guide his hands and fingers, bypassing his damaged spinal cord. Sc... More »
BERLIN Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday Germany wanted to find a solution to the migrant crisis but this was separate to artistic freedom after the Turkish leader filed a complaint against a comedian for insulting him with a satirical poem. “I want to ... More »
SEOUL South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc said its first-quarter operating profit likely rose 66 percent, pointing to its best quarter in nearly two years with earnings apparently lifted by healthy appliance sales and falling television panel prices. The world’s ... More »
WASHINGTON Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton on Sunday dismissed the notion of a contested nominating convention and said she was not preparing for such a scenario, after her rival for her party’s presidential nomination racked up another victory. Bernie... More »
WASHINGTON – Bernie Sanders won the U.S. presidential Democratic nominating contest in Wyoming on Saturday, besting rival Hillary Clinton and adding to a string of recent victories as the two candidates gear up for a crucial matchup in New York. Sanders, a U.S... More »
Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s lawyers declined on Saturday to directly address sexual abuse allegations from federal prosecutors, who asserted that he molested at least four boys decades ago when he served as a high school wrestling coach. Hastert... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will speak at an event in the Vatican next week, likely broadening his appeal to Catholic voters ahead of crucial nominating contests in a series of Northeastern states. Like Pope Francis, Sander... More »
A third of Republican voters who support Donald Trump could turn their backs on their party in November’s presidential election if he is denied the nomination in a contested convention, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The results are bad news for Trump’s ri... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on a NASA cargo run to the International Space Station on Friday, and its reusable main-stage booster landed on an ocean platform minutes later in a dramatic spaceflight first. The successf... More »
Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil was cited for battery after he grabbed a woman by the hair when she sought an autograph of actor Nicolas Cage at a Las Vegas hotel, police said on Friday. Cell phone video posted on celebrity website TMZ showed Cage grabbing Neil ... More »
The 17-year-old daughter of late actor Paul Walker has reached a $10.1 million settlement with the estate of the man driving the car that crashed and killed them both in 2013, her attorney said on Friday. Walker was a passenger in a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT dri... More »
WASHINGTON Security researchers and civil liberties advocates on Friday condemned draft legislation leaked from the U.S. Senate that would let judges order technology companies to assist law enforcement agencies in breaking into encrypted data. The long-awaite... More »
NEW YORK A wooden chair used by J.K. Rowling when she wrote her first two “Harry Potter” books has sold for $394,000 at a New York auction – more than eight times its opening bid. The chair, on which the British novelist painted the words “I wrote Harry Potter... More »
ZURICH/REYKJAVIK, Swiss police raided the European soccer body UEFA on Wednesday to seize information about a contract disclosed in the Panama Papers that was signed by Gianni Infantino, now head of the global soccer body FIFA. The impact of the leaked documen... More »
JERSEY CITY, N.J. With the push of a button, a perfectly healthy 34-year-old museum-goer named Ugo Dumont was transformed into a confused 85-year-old man with cataracts, glaucoma and a ringing in his ears known as tinnitus. Dumont had volunteered at Liberty Sc... More »
DIKILI, Turkey/LESBOS, Greece Migrants sent back from the Greek island of Lesbos began arriving in Turkey on Monday under a disputed European Union scheme aimed at closing the main route by which a million people poured across the Aegean Sea to Greece in the l... More »
BAKU Three Azeri servicemen were killed in fresh fighting with Armenian-backed separatists over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on Monday, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said. Azerbaijan had halted its attacks but Armenia was still “aggravating the situat... More »
GAZA Israel on Sunday extended the distance it permits Gaza fishermen to head out to sea along certain parts of the coastline of the enclave, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas. The fishing zone was expanded from six nautical miles (11 km) to nine (16 km... More »
LAS VEGAS Chris Stapleton, in his breakthrough year, took home more hardware at the Academy of Country Music Awards on Sunday, winning Male Vocalist of the Year, Album of the Year with “Traveller” and Song of the Year with “Nobody to Blame.” Before success on ... More »
WASHINGTON Donald Trump’s prediction that the U.S. economy was on the verge of a “very massive recession” hit a wall of skepticism on Sunday from economists who questioned the Republican presidential front-runner’s calculations. In an interview with the Washin... More »
MILWAUKEE Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump predicted that the United States is on course for a “very massive recession,” warning that a combination of high unemployment and an overvalued stock market had set the stage for another economic slum... More »
WASHINGTON Donald Trump is facing bipartisan pressure to adopt a more presidential tone in his White House run including from Democratic President Barack Obama and Republicans who worry his missteps may do irreparable harm to the party and his campaign. The Re... More »
TOKYO In late 2014, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caught markets and voters off-guard when he postponed an unpopular sales tax hike and called a snap election. Less than two years later, the only surprise will be if he doesn’t repeat the play. With consum... More »
BEIRUT Syrian government forces backed by heavy Russian air support drove Islamic State out of Palmyra on Sunday, inflicting what the army called a mortal blow to militants who seized the city last year and dynamited its ancient temples. The loss of Palmyra re... More »
SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE China’s mutual fund industry is pushing to develop investment products linked to local commodity futures, betting that plans to fight chronic oversupply in the country’s mammoth resource sector will drive up prices for raw materials. The fun... More »
WASHINGTON Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders easily won nominating contests in Alaska, Washington and Hawaii on Saturday, chipping away at front-runner Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead in the race to pick the party’s candidate for the White Hou... More »
TOKYO A laggard in embracing the ‘fintech’, or financial technology, revolution, Japan is set to ease investment restrictions that could free up the flow of capital in an economy sitting on an estimated $9 trillion in individuals’ cash deposits. Strict regulat... More »
ISLAMABAD Pakistan and Iran aim to increase annual trade volumes between the two countries to $5 billion by 2021, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday. Sharif spoke at a business conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who arrived i... More »
HAVANA The Rolling Stones rocked a massive crowd at a free, outdoor concert in Havana on Friday, capping a week of engagement with the West for the Communist-led country that once censored the veteran British band’s music. The Stones started their first-ever s... More »
HAVANA When Carlos Carnero’s rock band Los Kent plugged in guitars and drums to play Rolling Stones covers on Cuba’s Island of Pines in the 1960s, soldiers stopped the gig at gunpoint in minutes and marched the musicians onto a boat heading back to the mainlan... More »
WASHINGTON The feud between Republican presidential contenders Donald Trump and Ted Cruz over their spouses heated up on Thursday, with Cruz calling the party front-runner “a sniveling coward” for threatening his wife on Twitter. The senator from Texas also sh... More »
LOS ANGELES “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” is centered on the clash of two of the most recognizable caped heroes of the comic book world but it is the women of the DC Comics universe who defy expectations. The movie has “four really great female characte... More »
NEW YORK Love at first whiff is the idea behind Smell Dating, a New York matchmaking service that promises to help single people sniff out their perfect match by breathing in the odors from dirty T-shirts. Artist Tega Brain, who teaches at New York’s School fo... More »
WASHINGTON Scientists on Thursday announced the creation of a synthetic organism stripped down to the bare essentials with the fewest genes needed to survive and multiply, a feat at the microscopic level that may provide big insights on the very nature of life... More »
HONG KONG U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump has been pilloried in many ways, over his bouffant hair, orange skin and supposedly small hands, but a British artist has now used raw pig and sheep parts to sculpt him for a Hong Kong art show. T... More »
NEW YORK A consultant to Iran’s mission to the United Nations has been criminally charged with violating a U.S. law against dealing with that country, according to an indictment made public on Wednesday. Ahmad Sheikhzadeh, 60, faces seven charges including con... More »
BRUSSELS Belgian police were hunting on Thursday for a “third man” filmed with two Islamic State suicide bombers at Brussels Airport as investigators accumulated evidence that the same jihadist network was involved in the deadly Paris attacks last November. As... More »
WASHINGTON Atlanta’s airport was briefly evacuated on Wednesday over a suspicious package while U.S. law enforcement agencies and travelers were on edge a day after deadly suicide bombings by Islamist militants rocked Brussels. Passengers were ordered out of p... More »
BUENOS AIRES U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday championed Argentina’s new center-right leader Mauricio Macri as an example for other countries in Latin America, praising the fast pace of reforms to strengthen the economy. Obama, on a two-day visit to Ar... More »
HAVANA The Rolling Stones are welcoming Cubans to their free concert on Friday with Mick Jagger speaking Spanish in a video on YouTube, though few are likely to see it, given Cuba’s scant Internet penetration. “We have played in many incredible places but this... More »
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday the attack in Brussels that killed more than 30 people is the “latest brutal reminder” that more must be done to defeat Islamic State militants, including by European Union member countries... More »
ROME A sixth-century church boasting a rare collection of early Christian art is reopening to the public in Rome after a restoration that took more than 30 years. Nestling at the foot of the hill where Rome’s emperors once lived, Santa Maria Antiqua was buried... More »
BUENOS AIRES U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday he did not expect a breakthrough on Middle East peace before he leaves office and reiterated his support for a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians could live peacefully side by side. ... More »
PHOENIX Former Major League catcher Joe Garagiola, who achieved more lasting fame as a sports announcer and television host after his retirement from baseball, died on Wednesday at the age of 90. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of this amazing man who was ... More »
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK A bill that aims to protect babies born to mothers who used heroin or other opioids during pregnancy was introduced on Wednesday in the House as part of the government’s response to a Reuters investigation. The bipartisan measure would requ... More »
Hip-hop artist Phife Dawg, a member of New York-based group A Tribe Called Quest, has died at the age of 45, his family said on Wednesday. The family said in a statement that the musician, whose real name was Malik Taylor, died on Tuesday from complications fr... More »
NEW YORK Along with oil, stocks and steel, China’s roiling economic slowdown has deflated the buoyancy of another sector: the Asian Art market. Wealthy Chinese art collectors had driven art sales skyward in recent years for Chinese and Western art, such as the... More »
MILAN/LONDON Telecom Italia Chief Executive Marco Patuano officially resigned on Monday, confirming reports at the weekend he was on his way out as top shareholder Vivendi tightens its grip on the Italian phone group. Telecom Italia’s shares rose 4 percent, ad... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying a NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, ending a nearly six-hour flight, a NASA TV broadcast showed. U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Ole... More »
HAVANA Global ballet star Carlos Acosta returns to his Cuban roots when his new dance company takes to the stage next month. Since retiring last year from London’s Royal Ballet where he was principal guest artist, the 42-year-old has gone back to his native Ha... More »
ROME Fried cow’s brains might not be to everyone’s taste, but more people may sample the Florentine specialty now that Italy’s art capital has ordered food outlets in the city center to sell mostly local produce. Florence is the latest Italian tourist destinat... More »
ROME Silhouettes of emperors, popes and artists are slowly emerging on the grimy walls of the Tiber River in Rome, part of an epic mural that tells the history of the Eternal City. Technicians are using power hoses on the dirty stone to stencil the 550-metre-l... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The most detailed look at Pluto’s surface to date has revealed an unexpected range of mountains, glacial flows, smooth plains and other landscapes, according to studies released on Thursday. The unprecedented window into the so-called dwar... More »
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA Hundreds of thousands of Brazilians flooded the streets on Sunday in the biggest ever protests calling for President Dilma Rousseff’s removal, reflecting rising popular anger that could encourage Congress to impeach the leftist leader. The d... More »
WASHINGTON/BLOOMINGTON, Ill. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump refused to take responsibility on Sunday for clashes at his campaign events and criticized protesters who have dogged his rallies and forced him to cancel one in Chicago last week. ... More »
NEW YORK Fifty-stage frack jobs. Fifteen-foot cluster spacing. More than 2,000 pounds of proppant concentrate per foot. Top U.S. shale producers are pushing fracking technology to new extremes to get more oil out of their wells, as they weather lower-for-longe... More »
SEOUL South Korean Lee Sedol won his first match against a computer program developed by a Google subsidiary on Sunday in the ancient board game Go, denying a clean sweep for the artificial intelligence in a five-match series. Lee, one of the world’s top playe... More »
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. First lady Michelle Obama and representatives from nine former presidential families led a bipartisan gathering of politicians and celebrities in paying memorial tribute to Nancy Reagan, whose love for her late husband, Ronald Reagan, was h... More »
SEOUL Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) program on Saturday took a 3-0 lead in a five-match series against one of the world’s top players of the complicated board game Go. The victory for the AlphaGo program, designed by Google subsidiary DeepMind, over So... More »
Popular U.S. television dog trainer Cesar Millan, known as the “Dog Whisperer,” said on Friday he understands why he is being investigated for animal cruelty but stands by his training methods, as thousands signed a petition demanding his show be canceled. Mil... More »
BOSTON Comedian, writer, producer and musician Steve Martin can add another line to his resume: art museum curator. The 70-year-old actor, who rose to fame on “Saturday Night Live” and starred in films including “The Jerk” and “Father of the Bride,” makes his ... More »
ACAPULCO, Mexico BlackRock Inc Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said on Friday that China may be the biggest hurdle to global financial markets and that central bankers are adding to risks with negative-interest rate policies. “China does represent maybe mor... More »
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Attorneys for wrestling celebrity Hulk Hogan rested their $100 million privacy invasion case against the Gawker news outlet on Friday, wrapping up a lively week of testimony in a Florida lawsuit examining the posting of a sex tape in moder... More »
LOS ANGELES Coming off the mass marketing for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” filmmaker J.J. Abrams decided to change things up for “10 Cloverfield Lane,” a surprise follow-up to his 2008 cult disaster movie “Cloverfield.” “No one was anticipating this movie a... More »
A huge graffiti image of toddler Aylan Kurdi, pictures of whose dead body stirred global sympathy for migrants fleeing war and poverty, confronts motorists, pedestrians and river traveler in Frankfurt. Thousands of weekday commuters using the Main river footpa... More »
SEOUL Google’s AlphaGo computer program on Wednesday won the first of five matches against one of the world’s top players of a complex board game, Go, marking a dramatic advance for the field of artificial intelligence (AI). South Korean professional player Le... More »
Bank of America Corp is hiring a new team of investment bankers who cater to midsized companies, four years after dismantling a similar business, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The precise number of middle-market bankers it plans to add co... More »
LONDON Iran has managed to sell only modest volumes of oil to Europe since the lifting of sanctions seven weeks ago and several former buyers are staying away, citing legal complications and Tehran’s reluctance to sweeten terms to win back customers. Tehran ha... More »
TOKYO Sharp Corp’s (6753.T) two main banks are set to lower interest rates on billions of dollars in loans and offer other financial support as part of a planned takeover by Taiwan’s Foxconn, a source with direct knowledge of the plan said. The move is partly ... More »
TOKYO Toshiba Corp (6502.T) has granted Canon Inc (7751.T) exclusive negotiating rights for its medical equipment unit after a hotly contested auction, with a report putting Canon’s offer at more than 700 billion yen ($6.2 billion). The conglomerate put Toshib... More »
In the day following Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova’s admission that she failed a drug test, sponsors Nike, Porsche and Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer dropped her like a hot potato. Before social media demanded instant responses, sponsors often waited weeks o... More »
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. Sixteen-year-old Emma Joy and her younger sister Quinn recently spent an evening stuffing bags with a full year’s supply of tampons or sanitary pads for women who often miss work or school because they cannot afford menstrual products. The S... More »
DETROIT Republican front-runner Donald Trump racked up primary wins in the big prize of Michigan and in Mississippi on Tuesday, brushing off a week of blistering attacks from the party’s establishment and expanding his lead in the White House nominating race. ... More »
CARACAS, Venezuela Camimpeg, a new company formed by Venezuela’s military, will begin providing state oil producer PDVSA with services including drilling, logistics and security in less than a month, a senior defense official said in an interview. Deputy Defen... More »
NEW YORK Embattled drug company Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, whose stock price has tumbled 38 percent this year, will appoint three new board members as soon as Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The drug maker will award... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday that lawmakers would continue to press for new sanctions against Tehran “until the regime ends its violent, provocative behavior against the U.S. and our allies.” Ryan, whose Republican... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked not to be considered as a nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia last month, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. Lynch, 56, was rumored to be under consi... More »
WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV Israel would have shown good manners had it informed the United States directly rather than through the news media that it was turning down a proposed summit meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, the White House said on Tuesday. But spo... More »
ATLANTA Bobbi Kristina Brown’s former boyfriend Nick Gordon has been wrongly targeted in the criminal probe of her 2015 death despite his efforts to save her life after finding her unresponsive in a bathtub in her Georgia home, his lawyers said on Tuesday. The... More »
LOS ANGELES Fans of the late Joan Rivers will have the chance to buy items from the acerbic comedian’s New York home at an auction later this year, auctioneers Christie’s said on Tuesday. Pieces of art, jewelry, furniture and clothing will be among the 200-plu... More »
SINGAPORE With her brown hair, soft skin and expressive face, Nadine is a new brand of human-like robot that could one day, scientists hope, be used as a personal assistant or care provider for the elderly. The 1.7-metre tall Nadine was created in the likeness... More »
LONDON Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress and model Jerry Hall celebrated their marriage with a blessing service on Saturday at St. Bride’s church on London’s Fleet Street, the spiritual home of British journalism. A star-studded guest list included actor ... More »
LONDON Rupert Murdoch wed former supermodel Jerry Hall in a low-key ceremony in central London on Friday, the fourth marriage for the media mogul. The 84-year-old executive chairman of News Corp (NWSA.O) and owner of 21st Century Fox Inc, and Hall, 59, smiled ... More »
A southeast Michigan couple is twice lucky after the birth of their daughter on Feb. 29, the second time the mother has given birth to a baby girl on that day in a leap year. Chad and Melissa Croff, from Columbus Michigan, welcomed Evelyn Joy into the world at... More »
LOS ANGELES Catholic Church abuse movie “Spotlight” was named best picture, the top award at Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, after a night peppered with pointed punchlines from host Chris Rock about the #OscarsSoWhite controversy that has dominated the industry. In ... More »
LOS ANGELES They were supposed to free up Oscar recipients to say something profound during their 45 allotted seconds on stage. But the thank-you scrolls that ran at the bottom of the screen for the first time at the 88th Academy Awards on Sunday didn’t notice... More »
LOS ANGELES Comedian Chris Rock launched his return stint as Oscar host on Sunday by immediately and unabashedly confronting the racially charged elephant in the room – the furor over the all-white field of performers nominated for Hollywood’s highest honors. ... More »
LOS ANGELES Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar on Sunday, taking home the best actor statuette for his role in revenge movie “The Revenant.” DiCaprio, 41, had been nominated four times previously for an acting Oscar over a career spanning 25 years. He was ... More »
COLUMBIA, S.C. Riding high after a landslide victory in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has set sights on a possible face-off in the Nov. 8 presidential election with Donald Trump, the favorite for the Republican nomi... More »
CHICAGO A study of nine pregnant women from the United States who traveled to countries where the Zika virus was circulating shows a greater-than-expected number of fetal infections and brain abnormalities, U.S. health officials said on Friday. Two of the wome... More »
NEW YORK Jeffrey Gundlach, the co-founder and chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, said on Friday that his firm purchased some U.S. stocks two weeks ago after their rocky start in January and early February. “I thought it was a good buy point two wee... More »
NEW YORK First responders and the families of victims of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center gathered in New York on Friday to remember “the country’s first glimpse of terrorism,” a prelude to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers. ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SpaceX on Thursday called off its second attempt in as many days to launch a Falcon 9 rocket on a satellite-delivery mission because of a technical difficulty, a launch commentator said. The rocket was less than two minutes from liftoff fr... More »
A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that U.S. State Department officials and aides to Hillary Clinton should be questioned under oath about whether the former secretary of state’s use of a private email system was an effort to skirt open records laws. The ruling ... More »
AUSTIN, Texas Republican Ted Cruz asked a federal court in Houston to throw out a lawsuit questioning whether he is eligible to be president of the United States because he was born in Canada, saying the case against him “suffers from fatal deficiencies.” Lawy... More »
SINGAPORE/BEIJING Thousands of apps running code built by Chinese Internet giant Baidu have collected and transmitted users’ personal information to the company, much of it easily intercepted, researchers say. The apps have been downloaded hundreds of millions... More »
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio aimed to capitalize on rival Ted Cruz’s recent missteps leading up to Tuesday’s Nevada caucus, where a strong finish could bolster his position as the establishment favorite for his party’s nomination. Looming over... More »
WASHINGTON China is “changing the operational landscape” in the South China Sea by deploying missiles and radar as part of an effort to militarily dominate East Asia, a senior U.S. military official said on Tuesday. China is “clearly militarizing the South Chi... More »
WASHINGTON/DETROIT U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday stepped up pressure on federal regulators and Takata Corp (7312.T) to accelerate the recall of millions of airbag inflators, citing evidence that the Japanese company manipulated data to cover up problems with its p... More »
